The 1970 Tidewater 300 was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on Sunday, November 22, 1970, at Langley Field Speedway in Hampton, Virginia.
The race car drivers who used General Motors vehicles would be humiliated at the end of the race because they failed to win any races during the 1970 NASCAR Grand National Series season. NASCAR was on a big remeasuring kick during that year. They found out that a lot of tracks were slightly bigger or smaller than originally advertised. Bristol and Martinsville still use the measurements that were discovered in 1970.
Between 1950 and 1970, the most dominant drivers in the NASCAR Grand National Series were Richard Petty (with 119 wins), David Pearson (with 58 wins), and Lee Petty (with 53 wins).
Background
Langley Speedway is a paved short track measuring 0.395 miles in length, it is one of the flattest tracks in the region with only six degrees of banking in the corners and four degrees on the straights.
Race report
Considered to be the 48th event of the 1970 season, this race was the final race of an unregulated stock car racing organization without a corporate sponsor. Economic issues and the need to increase the total amount of winnings for each qualifying participant required NASCAR to accept a major corporate sponsor to bankroll what will become multimillion-dollar purses by the end of the 20th century. Like all races done before the 1973 oil crisis, the stock cars were considered to be the same vehicles that the drivers drove to the racetrack in. Homologation rules would remain strict until approximately 1975 when the NASCAR teams would abandon the Detroit factories and set up their own race car factories in the South Carolina area.
The race was decided in a time of one hour and forty minutes. Bobby Allison was declared the race winner. There were two cautions (for ten laps) and 3,200 people attended this 300 lap (118.5 miles) race. Speeds approached as the average and for the pole position speed. The margin of victory was only one hundred yards (the equivalent of a football field as used by the National Football League). Other top participants were Benny Parsons (with his first career pole position), Pete Hamilton, John Sears, James Hylton, Neil Castles, Elmo Langley, J.D. McDuffie, Frank Warren, and Jabe Thomas. This was the biggest racing grid of any race on the site at Langley with 30 drivers competing at the start. However, only twenty of them managed to complete the race.
The top prize of the race was $1,635 ($ when adjusted for inflation) and the prize for thirtieth place was $200 ($ when adjusted for inflation). Total winnings were considered to be $10,015 ($ when adjusted for inflation). Benny Parsons and Bobby Allison were constantly competing for the lead in parts of the race. Most of the vehicles that failed to finish the race were due to problems in their engine.
Roy Tyner would race his final NASCAR Cup series race here while Rodney Bruce would make his only NASCAR Grand National Series appearance.
Notable crew chiefs for this race included Junie Donlavey, Harry Hyde, Lee Gordon and Don Lawrence.
Unfortunately, it would also be the last race ever for Langley Field. Even though the race was more than 300 miles, it was not considered to be modern enough for the evolving vehicles of what would become the NASCAR Winston Cup Series the following year. Many of the "pioneer race courses" did not survive NASCAR's abbreviated schedule as the organizers believed that the older tracks were not modern enough for the faster and newer vehicles.
Qualifying
Finishing order
Bobby Allison (No. 22) Benny Parsons† (No. 72) Pete Hamilton (No. 32) John Sears† (No. 4) James Hylton† (No. 48) Neil Castles (No. 06) Elmo Langley† (No. 64) J.D. McDuffie† (No. 70) Frank Warren (No. 79) Jabe Thomas† (No. 25) Friday Hassler† (No. 39) Bill Champion† (No. 10) Joe Frasson† (No. 8) Jim Vandiver (No. 97) Henley Gray (No. 19) Bill Shirey (No. 74) Rodney Bruce (No. 78) Bill Holar (No. 88) Wendell Scott† (No. 34) Dave Marcis (No. 26) Joe Phipps* (No. 65) Jimmy Crawford*† (No. 02) Bobby Isaac*† (No. 71) Cecil Gordon*† (No. 24) Ben Arnold* (No. 54) Roy Tyner*† (No. 92) Bill Dennis* (No. 90) Larry Baumel* (No. 68) Don Tarr* (No. 37) Dick May*† (No. 67)